Fixing Traffic Drops after Website Redesign

You have redesigned and relaunched your website, thinking it’s outdated and not have been updated for very long time. For some reasons, you will see minor fluctuations in the website traffic which is quite normal, but there is a huge traffic drop! Now, how will you fix it?

Altogether if we analyze the purpose, people redesign their website and expect the traffic to grow by manifolds, giving them the best for the trouble they went. But if things turn out the other way, there is a possibility that somewhere certain web designing aspects have been overlooked that might have let to the traffic to drop.

Let’s learn about the pain points, shall we?

Why Traffic Drops after Website Redesigning?

• Redirect Issues
  • Let me start with a simple example, you have changed your mobile handset and you have two options, either you can retain the old number or have a new one.
  • In either case, it doesn’t matter what model you have, but the fact whether you have provided the concerned people with your new number or not?
  • The 301 redirect problems, you better call it that way, has the same element to consider.
  • While redesigning a website if you have recreated the old pages with new URL structure then it is quite essential to set 301 redirects for each of the pages so that search engines can easily crawl and index the new version.
  • Failing, the search engines will have nowhere to direct the traffic.
• Website Architecture
  • Sitemaps are the way search engines communicate with a website.
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  • When a website is redesigned, and if there is no familiarity between the different (old and new) versions of a sitemap, both visitors and search engines may find it hard to locate the content.
  • A sitemap is as similar to a blueprint; it defines the flow within the web structure, which is nothing but the navigation system. So, before you make any website live that has a new sitemap, have it under the search console and address issues that are causing traffic drops.
• The Site Copy
  • If the original target keywords are not arranged as before then your website will suffer in terms of traffic drop.
  • When a website is being redesigned it is important that the new design is being optimized for search engines in terms of keywords.
  • To make sure there are no mistakes in retaining the website copy, you should hire an SEO expert who will help you out in the task.

Steps to Retain your Website Traffic and SEO Rankings before & after Website Redesigning

First thing,

• Never, Ever Work on a LIVE Website
  • You may have top web designers working on your site, but you know mistakes can happen, so never let your visitors see that.
• Always Save the Original Website Information
  • The point of website redesigning is, let’s say, you are discarding an old cloth and having a new one to look much better. But what if the new cloth doesn’t fit and you have already thrown the old one? Things will go from bad to worse, right?
  • Same way, keep a copy of your old website before you redesign. After the website is redesigned perform 301 redirects so search engines can easily make way to your website through the new URL structure.
• 404 or 301 Redirects?
  • Should the URLs be 404 redirected or 301 redirected?
  • What’s the confusion here? Isn’t redirection sufficient to hold the traffic?
  • It depends on the availability of suitable alternatives to the old page.
  • 301 Redirect should be used when you have a perfect alternate web page for the existing old one.
  • 404 Redirect should be better when you can provide information to the requested URL with different content (but in future).
• Have an SEO Expert on Board
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  • Haste makes waste, in the rush to make some magical difference, it is common to have certain things overlooked, but SEO should never be on that list.
  • The power of SEO lies in website content, the keyword optimized Meta information that would guide search engine bots to crawl and index them. Removing them and replacing with new, but not so relevant content will let your website traffic dip.
  • Having an SEO expert board will keep such things under check.